"Is something wrong, Layla? You look upset?" My Asia asked me. She was sitting next to her doppelganger happily. I had moved inside the church after things had cooled off, sort of, outside.
I shook my head at her look of concern. I had been frowning openly for reasons I couldn't explain. "It's nothing, I just felt like I was missing out on something iconic. It's probably nothing though…" I told her while changing my frown to a smile. I did feel like I was missing out on something though…
[I'm sure it's nothing too important…]
I hope so.
I turned back to the other two people who had entered the church with me. They were currently gaping in shock at my Asia sitting next to this Universe's Asia.
"H-how is this possible?" Griselda Quarta asked. "Is she a clone?"
"Impossible…I can sense that she too has a Sacred Gear! Clones are not able to be born with them." Vasco Strada said while observing Asia. He turned to me. "What did you Fallen Angels do? Did Asia have a twin sister that your faction abducted at birth?" He asked me accusingly.
I raised an eyebrow at him. "That's where your imagination went to? Abducting babies? Of course we didn't do that! You're obviously both missing the most obvious answer here." I said smugly.
Griselda frowned at me. "And that is?"
"My Asia and I are from an Alternate Universe of course! We stopped by this one to visit!" I grinned at them.
Griselda sputtered at me. "H-how is that possibly the obvious answer!? And besides! Alternate Universes don't exist! Everyone knows that." She stated with certainty.
"And who in their right mind would believe that you two would just stop by for a visit?" Vasco Strada scoffed. "Whatever you're here for, we'll know when the Angels descend and question you." He told me.
"They can question me all they want, that doesn't mean I have to answer." I told him.
"You…" He looked at me annoyed.
"It's true Mr Strada! Layla and I are from a different world. One where the Devils are much worse than they are here. They still routinely eat people's souls back home! I got kicked out of the church, for healing Diodora, and was almost forced to become a Devil. Layla saved me!" Asia explained her story to them. Her words were so sincere that it was hard to not believe her when she spoke.
"I'm so sorry that happened to you–er–me? This is making my head hurt." Asia Alter said.
"That's ok, you get used to the weirdness the longer you stay with Layla. One of her current girlfriends is Lady Death herself!" Asia exclaimed.
"Wait? What!?" Griselda asked in shock while looking at me with concern.
And that's my cue to leave…
I stood up from the pew I was sitting in and stretched out. "Weeeeell…This has been fun and all but I think it's time that we take our leave now." I said to the two famous exorcists. I then turned towards the two blonde girls. "Come on Asia…and Asia. We're leaving now."
"She can come with us?" My Asia asked in excitement!
"I can?" Asia Alter asked also.
"No she can not!" Griselda stood up angrily and pointed at me. "She is not going anywhere with you!"
"She's not?" I looked at Griselda curiously. "Aren't you kicking her out of the church for healing a Devil?" I asked her.
"That never happened." Griselda replied smugly.
"Huh? It literally just happened." I said.
Griselda looked at me smugly. "Says who? No one saw it happen. The man who accused her is now a traitor who consorted with Devils. No one will ever believe him. They would never believe you, a Fallen Angel, over me either. Asia is a valued member of the church, who has done nothing wrong, and she will be staying with us!" Griselda declared.
[That's actually pretty devious of her…]
"If she's a valued member of the church then why is she staying in this dump?" I asked her while looking around. "This place is run down and I wouldn't be surprised if it has rats."
"The rats aren't so bad. I sometimes give them cheese and they let me pet them…" Asia Alter spoke up.
Griselda and Vasco grimaced upon hearing that. "O–of course her living conditions will be improved and she will have a full time guard with her from now on to make sure no Devil's try anything else." Griselda said. "My daughter Xenovia can handle that task."
"Xenovia was calling her a witch earlier…" I muttered.
"She will be disciplined and learn to not accuse others without proof in the future. You have my assurance that Asia will no longer suffer with us." Vasco Strada said to me.
I asked the girls what they wanted to do in this situation.
"I'd like to stay here." Asia Alter said. "T–the church is my home and I love God! I–I don't want to leave…" She mumbled out. "I'd be happy if you both could visit in the future though." She added.
Vasco and Griselda both sighed in relief when they heard that from her.
My Asia hugged the other one for the last time before I told her it was time to go. I told the two exorcists to contact the Grigori once they traded Diodora for his peerage and we could work out a time and place where the 14 girls 'might' be made humans again.
"I will escort you out of our territory so you can teleport away." Vasco said.
I waved him off. "That's fine. I'm just going to leave from here."
"There's a powerful barrier around the Vatican. You can't teleport here without being keyed into the ward–Huh!?"
He was cut off when I casually waved my hand and a purple portal manifested next to Asia and I. "I can travel between Universes, your church's barriers are nothing to bypass compared to that." I told him. He did not look happy that I could apparently freely come and go undetected into their territory. That wasn't my problem though. Asia and I hopped through the portal and went to pick up Heather and Vali. It had been a few hours and I wondered if Heather managed to learn any new magic?
XXX